Scratching below the surface, there is a much wider acceptance than is readily apparent. At the present Category 7 cables feature four individually shielded pairs surrounded by an additional shield. In the US, UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) is widely accepted. This has suppressed the demand for Category 7 cabling.
However, in the US we are starting to see availability of UTP cabling and connectors that can support bandwidth beyond Category 6 which is specified to 250 MHz. Indeed, such cabling and connectors support bandwidth above testing limits of 300 or 350 MHz found today in LAN Cable Testers that are targeted for the Category 6 market. This is driven by computer applications that are increasingly transferring graphic and video data.
In Europe, STP (Shielded Twisted Pair) is widely accepted. And competition among cable vendors has driven the bandwidth of the cable being currently instalLed to beyond the Category 7 limit of 600 MHz. Today, approximately 50 percent of installed cables in Germany are 600 MHz cables. While much of the Category 7 cable is currently terminated with Category 6 or 5e connectors, it can be re-terminated with Category 7 connectors (now available in the market) when applications demand the increased bandwidth. An increasing number of new installations in Europe are already terminating with Category 7 class connectors.